Split transcript view for business object integration into messaging

ABSTRACT

Embodiments of the present invention address deficiencies of the art in respect to messaging and provide a method, system and computer program product for business object integration with messaging. In an embodiment of the invention, a method for messaging integration of a business object can be provided. The method can include embedding a business object in message text in a chat session provided by a messenger, and applying an action to the business object from within the messaging session of the instant messenger. The method further can include generating a message transcript for the messaging session with a split view of the message text and the business object and applied action.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a Continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.11/948,323, filed on Nov. 30, 2007. This application is related to thefollowing U.S. Patent Applications: U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/948,342, entitled “BUSINESS OBJECT ACTION JUSTIFICATION FOR BUSINESSOBJECT INTEGRATION INTO MESSAGING” and filed on Nov. 30, 2007; U.S.patent application Ser. No. 11/948,370, entitled “CORRELATING MESSAGINGTEXT TO BUSINESS OBJECTS FOR BUSINESS OBJECT INTEGRATION INTO MESSAGING”and filed on Nov. 30, 2007; and U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/948,398, entitled “INDEXING A MESSAGING SESSION FOR BUSINESS OBJECTINTEGRATION INTO MESSAGING” and filed on Nov. 30, 2007.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to the field of messaging and moreparticularly to the integration of business objects within a message.

2. Description of the Related Art

Messaging forms the heart of the Internet. The Internet with its global,continuous reach enables interpersonal activities from afar, includingboth asynchronous messaging like e-mail and document sharing andthreaded discussions, to real time communications systems such asinstant messaging and group chat. Electronic mail delivery systems, theprototypical asynchronous communications systems, in its timerepresented a giant leap forward in respect to global interpersonalcommunications. Prior to electronic mail, individuals primarilycommunicated via telephone, facsimile and post. With electronic mail,however, individuals expect near instant delivery of text, and evenimagery, audio and video, without incurring the delay typical of thepostal system, or the expense associated with telephony and faxtechnologies.

Despite the ubiquity of electronic mail, asynchronous communicationssystems lack several elements common in the realm of real timecommunications systems. In particular, the seemingly instant delivery ofa message cannot be experienced in the world of electronic mail. In areal-time society, the minor latencies associated with electronic mailoften cannot be suitable for the task at hand where a real-timeconversation will be required in addressing a problem or performing acollaborative task. More importantly, often the feel and nature of a“conversation” as it is known to human beings only can be approximatedthrough real time communications where the participants to aconversation feel the spontaneity of an exchange of ideas, much as isthe case in a live, face-to-face conversation. Thus, the instantmessaging environment has proven to be an invaluable compliment toe-mail as a real-time conversational mechanism.

Conventional messaging systems allow users to exchange messages across anetwork. As a stand alone application, messaging enjoys straightforwardapplication as a conversational tool. Within, the business workflowenvironment, however, the role of the message, whether synchronous orasynchronous, is less clear. A business workflow generally involves theelectronic and in person collaboration between collaborators in order toaccomplish a goal. As part of the business workflow, collaboratorsreceive documents electronically, amend the documents and ultimatelyapprove or disprove of the distribution of the document. Businessobjects have been specifically incorporated into document editing anddocument viewing applications in order to permit the management of adocument in a business workflow.

Specifically, a business object encapsulates traditional lower-levelobjects that implement a business process. Notably, business objectsboth simulate corporate procedures and translate smoothly into softwareobjects. Historically, business objects have been embedded in Web pagesand e-mail documents using client side extensions to browser clients.More recently, scripts disposed in client side content like Web pagesand e-mail messages have been configured to maintain an activeconnection with underlying business objects to provide an integratedactive view of the business objects. The integration of businessobjects, however, has largely eluded both asynchronous communicationslike e-mail, shared documents and threaded discussions, and synchronousreal-time applications like instant messengers and group chat sessions.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the present invention address deficiencies of the art inrespect to messaging and provide a novel and non-obvious method, systemand computer program product for business object integration withmessaging. In an embodiment of the invention, a method for messagingintegration of a business object can be provided. The method can includeembedding a business object in chat text in a chat session provided byan instant messenger, and applying an action to the business object fromwithin the chat session of the instant messenger. The method further caninclude generating a message transcript for the messaging session with asplit view of the message text and the business object and appliedaction.

In one aspect of the embodiment, the method further can includeidentifying a verb in the message text in association with a pronounreferencing the business object, and providing a context menu for thebusiness object in the messaging session with entries in the contextmenu limited according to the identified verb. In a second aspect of theembodiment, the method further can include forwarding a copy of themessage text to a backend business component as a justification to theapplied action.

Additional aspects of the invention will be set forth in part in thedescription which follows, and in part will be obvious from thedescription, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The aspectsof the invention will be realized and attained by means of the elementsand combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims. It isto be understood that both the foregoing general description and thefollowing detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only andare not restrictive of the invention, as claimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute partof this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention andtogether with the description, serve to explain the principles of theinvention. The embodiments illustrated herein are presently preferred,it being understood, however, that the invention is not limited to theprecise arrangements and instrumentalities shown, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a pictorial illustration of a messenging applicationconfigured for business object integration;

FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration of a messaging data process systemconfigured for business object integration; and,

FIG. 3 is a flow chart illustrating a process for reducing a contextmenu for a business object based upon messaging text in a messagingsession.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the present invention provide a method, system andcomputer program product for integrating business objects in a messagingsession. In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, abusiness object can be embedded in a messaging session such as an e-mailexchange, instant messaging or chat session, threaded discussion, orshared document library, to name only a few. Thereafter, pronouns in thetext of the session referencing the business object can be visuallydistinguished to assist in the understanding of the role of the businessobject in the session. Using the pronouns, a verb operating on thebusiness object can be identified and the entries of a context menu forthe business object can be reduced accordingly. Yet further, thebusiness objects can be indexed and the index can be used when producinga transcript for the session. In this regard, the transcript can includeseparate views of the messaging text and the business object. Finally,the session can provide a justification for actions performed on thebusiness object by forwarding a copy of the chat text to an externalcomponent supporting the business object.

In further illustration, FIG. 1 pictorially depicts a messengerconfigured for business object integration. As shown in FIG. 1, aninstant messenger 110, shown for exemplary purposes only, can support achat between users. The chat text 120 can be provided in the instantmessenger 110 and a business object 130 coupled to a backend component190A and corresponding data store 190B can be embedded in the chat text120. Of note, different pronouns can be included in the chat text 120referencing the business object 130. To that end, the chat text can belinguistically parsed to identify the pronouns 140 that reference thebusiness object 130. For example, the chat text can be liguisticallyparsed to identify the pronouns 140 that reference the business object130 utilizing anaphora resolution. Thereafter, the pronouns 140 can bevisually distinguished from the rest of the chat text 120 in order tofacilitate a viewing of the chat text 120 in reference to the businessobject 130.

Notably, a context menu 150 can be provided for the business object 130in the instant messenger 110. The context menu 150 can include entries160 permitting actions to be performed in respect to the business object130. The entries 160, however, can be reduced depending upon the contextof the chat text 120. In this regard, different grammatical constructsrelating to the pronouns 140 in the chat text 120 can be identifiedaccording to grammatical rules such as Sentence→Noun Phrase+Verb Phrase,Verb Phrase→Verb+Noun Phrase, and Noun Phrase→article+Noun. Thereafter,the verbs acting on the pronouns 140 can be determined and matched to areduced set of the entries 160 for the context menu 150. For example, asshown in FIG. 1, the verb “approve” in connection with “it” can map tothe entries 160 “Approve” and “More info”. In this way, an end userinvoking the context menu 150 need only be presented with pertinententries 160 in the context menu 150.

Once an action has been performed on the business object 130, the actioncan be communicated to the backend component 190A. To provide ajustification for the action, the chat text 120 can be encapsulated injustification data 100 and provided to the backend component 190A forstorage as a record in the data store 190B. In this way, one reviewingthe action for the business object 130 will access the justification 100to provide context for the action.

The instant messenger 110 can produce a chat transcript 180 of the chattext 120. To facilitate a viewing of the chat text 120, however, thechat transcript 180 can provide one transcript view 180A of the chattext 120 and another business object view 180B of the business object130. In the business object view 180B, a listing of each business object130 and the corresponding action taken upon the business object 130 canbe provided. In this way, the viewer can readily identify actions takenupon business objects integrated into the instant messenger 110.

Finally, a keyword index 170 can be generated for the chat transcript180 in order to facilitate the searching of the chat transcript 180.Though inverted indexing can be performed on the chat text 120, thebusiness objects 130 can be indexed differently in that the businessobject 130 can be represented in the chat text 120 with attribute tags.In this way, the attribute tags for the business object 130 can bereflected in the index 170 as opposed to the business object 130,itself.

Importantly, the skilled artisan is to recognize that the exemplary useof an instant messenger 110 in FIG. 1 is not to be construed as limitingthe scope of the term “messenger” merely to real-time communicators likean instant messenger or group chat. Rather, the skilled artisan is torecognize that other messengers can equally suffice, including an e-mailsystem, a discussion forum environment or a shared document library, toname a few. In all circumstances, the skilled artisan would realize thatthe instant messenger 110 can be replaced with an e-mail clientproviding a view to a thread of e-mails, or a discussion forumenvironment providing view to discussion forum text in a threadeddiscussion forum, or a shared document library environment providingview to shared documents in a shared document library. Likewise, chattranscript 180 can easily be replaced with an aggregation of e-mailcontent in a thread of e-mails, or an aggregation of a threadeddiscussion in a discussion forum, or an aggregation of documents in ashared document library.

In further illustration, FIG. 2 schematically depicts a messaging dataprocess system configured for business object integration. The systemcan include a host server 200 communicatively coupled to one or moreclients 220 over computer communications network 230. The host server200 can support the operation of a messaging server 210 such as aninstant messaging server shown for exemplary purposes only, accessed byone or messaging clients 240 in respective ones of the clients 220. Abackend server 250 supporting the operation of one or more businesscomponents (not shown) further can be coupled to the host server 200over the computer communications network.

Notably, business object integration logic 260 can be coupled to themessaging server 210 through the host server 200. Alternatively, thebusiness object integration logic 260 can be coupled to one or more ofthe clients 220 or the business object integration logic 260 can bedistributed between the host server 200 and the clients 220. The logic260 can include program code enabled to integrate a business object intoa messaging session and to provide integrative tools including referencemarking, messaging transcript processing, context menu reduction,justification text transfer and business object indexing. To that end,the business object integration logic 260 can include a referencemarking module 260A, an integrated messaging transcript module 260B, acontext menu reduction module 260C, a justification text transfer module260D and a business object indexing module 260E.

The reference marking module 260A can be enabled to identify pronouns inmessage text, to correlate the pronouns with a business object in themessage text and to visually distinguish the pronouns so as to overtlyspecify the reference of the pronouns to the business object. Theintegrated messaging transcript module 260B can be enabled to provide asplit view of chat text for a messaging session and business objectsembedded in the messaging session and corresponding actions performed onthe business objects. The context menu reduction module 260C can beenabled to identify and map verbs in message text in association with anembedded business object in order to produce a reduced set of entries tobe rendered in a context menu for the business object in the messagingsession. Specifically, FIG. 3 is a flow chart illustrating a process forreducing a context menu for a business object based upon message text ina messaging session.

Beginning in block 310, chat text for a messaging session can be loadedand rules for locating pronouns can be loaded as well in block 320. Inblock 330, the message text can be parsed and in block 340 one or morepronouns referencing a business object can be located by applying therules to the message text. Subsequently, a verb can be identified inassociation with a pronoun in block 350. In block 360, a set of menuentries associated with the verb can be located in a table and in block370, a context menu can be populated with the set of menu entries.Finally, in block 380 the context menu can be displayed in associationwith the business object in the message session.

Returning to FIG. 2, the justification text transfer module 260D can beenabled to provide the message text for a messaging session to a backendbusiness component to be associated with an action performed on abusiness object for the backend business component as a justificationfor the action. Finally, the indexing module 260E can index tags for thebusiness object when indexing message text for a message session in amessage transcript. In this way a business object embedded in amessaging session can be searched along with the message text of themessage session in a message transcript with contextual relevance.

Embodiments of the invention can take the form of an entirely hardwareembodiment, an entirely software embodiment or an embodiment containingboth hardware and software elements. In a preferred embodiment, theinvention is implemented in software, which includes but is not limitedto firmware, resident software, microcode, and the like. Furthermore,the invention can take the form of a computer program product accessiblefrom a computer-usable or computer-readable medium providing programcode for use by or in connection with a computer or any instructionexecution system.

For the purposes of this description, a computer-usable or computerreadable medium can be any apparatus that can contain, store,communicate, propagate, or transport the program for use by or inconnection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.The medium can be an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic,infrared, or semiconductor system (or apparatus or device) or apropagation medium. Examples of a computer-readable medium include asemiconductor or solid state memory, magnetic tape, a removable computerdiskette, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), arigid magnetic disk and an optical disk. Current examples of opticaldisks include compact disk-read only memory (CD-ROM), compactdisk-read/write (CD-R/W) and DVD.

A data processing system suitable for storing and/or executing programcode will include at least one processor coupled directly or indirectlyto memory elements through a system bus. The memory elements can includelocal memory employed during actual execution of the program code, bulkstorage, and cache memories which provide temporary storage of at leastsome program code in order to reduce the number of times code must beretrieved from bulk storage during execution. Input/output or I/Odevices (including but not limited to keyboards, displays, pointingdevices, etc.) can be coupled to the system either directly or throughintervening I/O controllers. Network adapters may also be coupled to thesystem to enable the data processing system to become coupled to otherdata processing systems or remote printers or storage devices throughintervening private or public networks. Modems, cable modem and Ethernetcards are just a few of the currently available types of networkadapters.

We claim:
 1. A computer-implemented method for messaging integration ofa business object, comprising: displaying, by a messenger, message textwithin a messaging session; embedding, within the messaging session, thebusiness object in the message text; performing, from within themessenger, an action to the business object; and generating a messagetranscript for the messaging session, wherein the message transcript isa split view including the message text and the business object.
 2. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising: identifying a verb in the messagetext in association with a pronoun referencing the business object; andproviding a context menu for the business object in the messagingsession with entries in the context menu limited according to theidentified verb.
 3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:forwarding a copy of the message text to a backend business component asa justification to the applied action.
 4. The method of claim 1, whereinthe business object is coupled to a backend component.
 5. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the messenger is one of an instant messenger, an-emailmessenger, a discussion forum environment, or a shared document libraryenvironment.
 6. The method of claim 1, further comprising: providing acontext menu for the business object.
 7. A computer hardware system formessaging integration of a business object, comprising: at least oneprocessor, wherein the at least one processor is configured to initiateand/or perform: displaying, by a messenger, message text within amessaging session; embedding, within the messaging session, the businessobject in the message text; performing, from within the messenger, anaction to the business object; and generating a message transcript forthe messaging session, wherein the message transcript is a split viewincluding the message text and the business object.
 8. The system ofclaim 7, wherein the at least one processor is further configured toinitiate and/or perform: identifying a verb in the message text inassociation with a pronoun referencing the business object; andproviding a context menu for the business object in the messagingsession with entries in the context menu limited according to theidentified verb.
 9. The system of claim 7, wherein the at least oneprocessor is further configured to initiate and/or perform: forwarding acopy of the message text to a backend business component as ajustification to the applied action.
 10. The system of claim 7, whereinthe business object is coupled to a backend component.
 11. The system ofclaim 7, wherein the messenger is one of an instant messenger, an-emailmessenger, a discussion forum environment, or a shared document libraryenvironment.
 12. The system of claim 7, wherein the at least oneprocessor is further configured to initiate and/or perform: providing acontext menu for the business object.
 13. A computer program product,comprising: a computer readable storage medium having stored thereincomputer readable program code for messaging integration of a businessobject, the computer readable program code, which when executed by acomputer hardware system, causes the computer hardware system toperform: displaying, by a messenger, message text within a messagingsession; embedding, within the messaging session, the business object inthe message text; performing, from within the messenger, an action tothe business object; and generating a message transcript for themessaging session, wherein the message transcript is a split viewincluding the message text and the business object, and the computerreadable storage medium is not a transitory, propagating signal per se.14. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the computerreadable program code further causes the computer hardware system toperform: identifying a verb in the message text in association with apronoun referencing the business object; and providing a context menufor the business object in the messaging session with entries in thecontext menu limited according to the identified verb.
 15. The computerprogram product of claim 13, wherein the computer readable program codefurther causes the computer hardware system to perform: forwarding acopy of the message text to a backend business component as ajustification to the applied action.
 16. The computer program product ofclaim 13, wherein the business object is coupled to a backend component.17. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the messenger isone of an instant messenger, an-email messenger, a discussion forumenvironment, or a shared document library environment.
 18. The computerprogram product of claim 13, wherein the computer readable program codefurther causes the computer hardware system to perform: providing acontext menu for the business object.